Would you be surprised if I told you I actually coach a LOT of marketing consultants and business coaches who help others build their businesses? Many of these consultants and coaches come to me because, even though they know how to put these steps into practice, they still dont have a full practice, or at least not consistently. WHY? The reason is simple. They dont market consistently. What usually happens (to most of us self-employed professionals) is that we get caught up in the everyday of our businesses and when we have clients, we focus our entire days on those clients. (Is that the case for you too?) Until the clients leave and our well runs dry. So, we find ourselves digging our well when were thirsty. This is the scenario my clients tell me about: because they know what to do, when marketing consultants need clients, they market, market, market, market, and sign up a bunch of new clients. Then, because they have all these new clients, they stop marketing. No time to market! But, sooner or later, the well runs dry once again and they have to start marketing furiously again. So they, market, market, market, and they again sign up a bunch of new clients. Then the same thing happens and they start living this unbearable life of Feast or Famine, an intolerable rollercoaster they wish they could stop. Well, now they can. The solution: you can eliminate Feast or Famine by being systematic about your Client Attraction and putting your marketing on autopilot. The only way to make sure you always have a full practice is to always market. The best way to do that is to make all the pieces of your marketing pie run on a system, like a well-oiled machine that doesnt need you to be there the whole time, just once in a while to make sure everythings going smoothly. As clients get to know me in our one-on-one private coaching, they tend to see how fanatical I can be about systems. Ive created systems for EVERYTHING, probably because I wasnt always a very disciplined person by nature. (I know Im not the only one, so dont start throwing stones!) So to counteract that (because I need to have a full practice at all times or else Id have to go back to being corporate, which is a big no-no for me), I make sure everything I do runs like clockwork. Heres how I do it and how Ive taught hundreds of clients how to do it too: - Breakfast networking group (WEEKLY MEETING, paid for once a year and booked in my calendar for the entire year).
- Associations (MONTHLY MEETING, paid for once a year and booked in my calendar for the entire year).
- Free teleclasses on how to attract clients, MONTHLY.
- My own seminars (BIMONTHLY, paid for and booked at the beginning of the year).
- E-zine (WEEKLY, goes out ever week, without exceptionmy assistant makes sure that it does).
- Articles for association newsletters (MONTHLY, schedule of articles and deadlines are set by the association).
- Speaking for associations/organizations/conferences (OFTEN WEEKLY OR BIWEEKLY, I have a list of speaking opportunities that Im constantly following up on to get booked regularly).
- Strategic alliances (OFTEN WEEKLY OR BIWEEKLY, I have a list of strategic alliances that Im constantly following up on to do things with regularly).
Do you see a trend? Everything I do in terms of Client Attraction, every single piece of my own Marketing Pie, is set up to work automatically and systematically. I set these things up ahead of time and then all I have to do is show up. I dont ever have to worry about what I have to do next. Its already in my calendar. This is the one thing that I have rarely seen in any book or course that teaches you how to get clients, yet I think its one of the most crucial. If you dont set things up to be systematic, then you wont stay on track. If you dont stay on track, you wont market consistently. If you dont market consistently, then you wont take action and get results consistently. That means youre going to have a much harder time keeping your practice consistently full, UNLESS you set things up to work on their own, with a little tweak from you here and there. Your Assignment: Set up systems for everything that is marketing and Client Attraction. Figure out what you will do daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly so you too can go from being undisciplined with not enough clients, to disciplined with a full practice. 2006 Fabienne Fredrickson |
